Albert Katz (; 17 July 1858 – 16 December 1923), also known by the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Ish ha-Ruaḥ (), was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

-born rabbi, writer, and journalist.

Biography

Albert Katz was born in Lodz, and studied at the ''

yeshivot A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish education, Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in par ...

'' of

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

and

Vilna Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

before moving to Berlin in 1881. He served as a rabbi in

Fürstenwalde Fürstenwalde/Spree (; ) is the most populous town in the Oder-Spree District of Brandenburg, in eastern Germany. Geography The town is situated in the glacial valley (''Urstromtal'') of the Spree river north of the Rauen Hills, about east of ...

from April 1883 to 1886, and for Congregation Ohel Yitzḥak in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

from April 1886 to 1887. From 1887 he devoted himself exclusively to writing. Together with , Katz founded the periodical ''Serubabel'' (1886–88), which promoted Jewish settlement in Israel. In 1890 he was hired as editor of the ''

Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums ''Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums'' (until May 1903: ''Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums'') was a Jewish German magazine devoted to Jewish interests, founded in 1837 by Ludwig Philippson (1811–89), published first in Leipzig and later in Berli ...

'', eventually becoming its chief editor in 1919. He was also one of the founders of the ''Vereine für jüdische Literatur und Geschichte'' of Berlin, and of the ''Verband der Literatur-Vereine'' in Hanover (1894), and served as the latter's secretary. He died on 16 December 1923 at his apartment in

Pankow Pankow () is the second largest and most populous Boroughs and quarters of Berlin, borough of the German capital Berlin. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform, it was merged with the former boroughs of Prenzlauer Berg and Weissensee (Berlin), W ...

, and was buried at the

Weißensee Cemetery Weißensee (German: ''white lake'') may refer to: Places * Weissensee (Berlin), a district of Berlin *Weißensee, Thuringia, a town in Thuringia, Germany * Weissensee, Austria, a municipality in Carinthia, Austria * Weissensee (Carinthia), a lake i ...

Works

* Published in German as ''Der Jude und das Land seiner Väter''. * * Translation of I. B. Levinson's ''Efes Damim''. * Response to August Rohling's anti-Jewish work ''Der Talmudjude'' (1871). * * * A collection of stories including ''Eine Wette'', ''Der Car und der Rabbi'', ''David und Jonathan'' (adapted from a story by I. L. Peretz), and ''Der Fasttag''. * * * Biographical sketches of

Tannaitic ''Tannaim'' ( Amoraic Hebrew: תנאים "repeaters", "teachers", singular ''tanna'' , borrowed from Aramaic) were the rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah, from approximately 10–220 CE. The period of the Tannaim, also refe ...

scholars. * * * Adapted from a story by Jacob Dinezon. * * * Collection of twenty-seven homiletic essays.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Albert 1858 births 1923 deaths 19th-century German Jews 19th-century German journalists 19th-century German male writers 19th-century German rabbis German magazine editors German people of Polish-Jewish descent German Zionists People from Pankow Polish Zionists Writers from Berlin Writers from Łódź Rabbis from Berlin 19th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers Writers from Congress Poland